Tyrrell Conway

B.S. 1979, Ph.D. 1984, Oklahoma State UniversityPostdoc (w/ L. O. Ingram) 1985-1988, University of FloridaAssistant Professor, 1988 to 1993, University of NebraskaAssociate Professor, 1994 to 1999, The Ohio State UniversityAssociate Professor, 1999 to present, University of OklahomaProfessor, 2004 to present, University of OklahomaCo-director, 1999 to present, OU Advanced Center for Genome Technology

Research Interests:

Our work with Escherichia coli centers on the physiological
state of colonized bacteria in the large intestine. We are using functional
genomics (genomic expression profiling using DNA arrays), together with more
traditional approaches, to ask which E. coli genes are expressed in the
large intestine. The data are illuminating cellular processes -- nutrition,
stress-tolerance, and virulence factors -- that are important for
colonization and pathogenesis. The work involves testing of several
hypotheses in the mouse model, including the possibility that defects in
specific metabolic pathways render E. coli mutants unable to grow in the
host and, therefore, avirulent. We are comparing commensal (innocuous) E.
coli strains with the pathogen E. coli O157:H7, for which we have fabricated
DNA microarrays, to identify factors that allow the pathogen to infect
normally colonized hosts. There is also an applied side to our research.
We are identifying genetic systems in E. coli that provide resistance to
environmental stresses. Not only are these systems likely to be involved in
colonization and disease, but it may also be possible to make these systems
portable for expression in industrial microorganisms.